


The Moon & Jemma Simmons

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 15:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5096438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being back on Earth is a strange experience for Will Daniels. But having Jemma there makes it easier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Moon & Jemma Simmons

**Author's Note:**

> I did not think space boyfriend would happen, and I certainly didn't think I'd like space boyfriend. But I love space boyfriend.

There’s a knock on his door that finally breaks the relative silence.

“Steak, medium rare,” Jemma balances a tray of food in one hand and a large bottle of water in the other.

Will smiles, “No wine?”

What he wants to say is ‘I can’t believe you came back,’ or maybe ‘I knew you’d come back.’

Both sides of the argument have been ay ward inside his head for the last two months (sixty-six days, Jemma told his while she personally saw to each of his many medical evaluations).

The part of him that spent fourteen years alone on a plant hell-bench on destroying him would never go back, not for anything in the world. He wouldn’t tempt fate twice.

But those six months with Jemma? The hope she inspired in him? It didn’t fade so easily.

“You’re dehydrated,” she tells him. “We’ll have to celebrate later.”

Under other circumstances, maybe Will would have paid more attention to the thought of celebrating with her, but the food that sits in front of him smells way too good. Granted, dog food would probably smell good to him at this point.

He digs in.

“This is amazing,” he tells Jemma when he finally comes up for air.

She laughs, “Thank you.”

“You made this?” he asks.

So not only is she a brilliant scientist full of endless optimism and brave enough to return to hell for him, but she’s also a good cook? If he didn’t already know she was real, he’d almost believe she was a hallucination.

“Just the fries,” she tells him. “And don’t get used to it, meals aren’t normally this fancy around here.”

Will pops one of the aforementioned fries in his mouth, “Truffle fries?”

Jemma nods and begins to eat her own food.

They don’t talk much, he’s too ravenous to waste time on that, but she does warn him that it’s in his best interest to eat a bit more slowly.

“So what now?” Will asks, once he’s all but licked the plate clean.

He’s showered, and eaten, so really sleep should come next. But he’s willing to put that off for a bit so he can talk to Jemma.

He missed her. He thinks he might have missed her even if he’d had other people around to distract him.

They’ve moved him out of the sterile white containment unit they first deposited him, which he assumes means he’s been given a clean bill of health. This bedroom is pretty barren, just a bed, a lamp, and a folding table with two chairs set up so they can eat.

It sure beats hiding underground.

“Well it might take you a while to adjust,” Jemma tells him in a quiet tone that makes it sound like she’s struggling to do so herself. “There are differences in gravity and light intensity, not to mention the high level of sensory stimulation.”

In theory, what she’s talking about should worry him. It means there’s a lot of work to be done, and she’s not even touching on the psychological effects of fourteen years of solitude. But just listening to explain things makes him feel safer. She got him out of hell, she can get him back to normal.

“Plus fourteen years of technological development,” Will adds.

Tiny little phones that play videos and have more storage than some of the computers they brought through the portal. A Shield medical center with machines so advanced he barely recognized any of them.

Fourteen years of time passing by. All the stuff in his apartment is probably lying in a dump at this point. All this Air Force buddies have probably settled down. Or died. Or think he’s dead.

His parents.

He sighs.

“The good news is you have a very patient teachers,” Jemma says. “You’ll be caught up in no time.”

“You?” he asks hopefully.

His social skills are a little rusty, probably. At least he knows he’s capable of talking to Jemma.

She nods, “Me.”

Will feels relieved.

“Coulson will want to ask you questions about the planet, more information on how you got there, who you were working for,” Jemma continues. “But we’ve agreed that you need time to… adjust first.”

That’s good. He’s not even sure where to begin.

“And in the meantime?” he asks.

Hopefully it involves getting out of this room. It doesn’t even have windows, and while he trusts that Jemma’s brought him back to Earth, he would really like the physical proof. The sun would be ideal, but he’d settle for a crescent moon and some stars.

The right stars.

Jemma shrugs, “In the meantime you need some sleep.”

The lights are dim in his room already, probably because of the light stuff Jemma already mentioned.

He gets situated in bed as Jemma starts piling their dishes back on the tray. He’s glad he ended up showering before eating, as he can only imagine what the pristine white sheets would look like if he hadn’t.

“What time is it anyway?” he asks as Jemma pulls the door open.

“About three in the afternoon,” she tells him.

Will nods. He can worry about a normal sleep schedule some other day.

 

\--

When he wakes up later, it takes him a moment to remember he’s not hiding out in that cavern anymore.

He’s surprised to find Jemma tucked away in one of the folding chairs, reading a book by the dim light of the lamp.

“Did I wake you,” she asks?

He shakes his head, “Just ready to get up. What time is it?”

“Two AM,” she tells him.

“I take it that means you aren’t sleeping right either?” he asks.

“Nightmares,” is all Jemma will say on that matter.

He must have been too exhausted for those tonight.

“So, should we start catching me up on the last fourteen years, then?”

It’s not like there’s anything else to do in the middle of the night.

“Tomorrow,” she tells him. She sounds tired. “But in the meantime…”

“Whatever you want,” Will says.

She has that effect on him.

Jemma leaves the room and returns with jackets for each other them. Will puts on the shoes waiting next to his bed and follows her through the halls.

Even at night, the base is noisy. A few people pass by them with curious looks, but they seem too busy to linger. Machines beep and rumble behind metallic doors. His head starts to throb just imaging what it’s like during the day.

They climb up a ladder tucked at the end of a hallway and emerge out into the night.

There isn’t anything around them, just asphalt. Shield’s base must be completely underground. It explains the lack of window.

The ground is cold underneath him, but Will doesn’t mind with Jemma sitting next to him.

It’s not hard to guess why she brought him out here.

“I never thought I’d be so surprised to see the moon,” Will comments.

It’s full and bright and surrounded my millions of stars. 

“And there’s only one,” Jemma says.

One beautiful moon, just there should be.

“Thank god.”

He can’t take his eyes off of it. Shield’s base might as well be in alien territory to him, it’s so full of unfamiliar sights and sounds. But the moon is the first definite sign that he’s back on Earth.

The moon and Jemma Simmons.

They’re both a huge comfort, both a sight for sore eyes.

They both take his breath away.

But there will be time enough to discuss that in the future, now that he’s sure he has a future. 

Now that he’s back where he belongs.

“Okay professor,” he says, using the nickname he’s only said to a woman in his imagination for the last two months, “now that’s we’re back home I expect you to teach me all of these constellations.”

He’s looking forward to it.


End file.
